Atlantic 10 reportedly to move men's basketball tournament out of Atlantic City for Brooklyn's Barclays Center

Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/MCTTemple and Richmond square off during last year's Atlantic 10 Conference Championship semifinals at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The A-10 is expected to move the tournament to Brooklyn's new Barclays Center in 2013.

Score another point for the new Barclays Center in college basketball's arena wars.

According to a report by ESPN.com Monday afternoon, the Atlantic 10 Conference is set to move its men's basketball conference tournament out of Atlantic City and up to Brooklyn's new Barclays Center. The report, citing unnamed sources, said that the move is expected to begin in 2013.

A formal announcement of the move is expected Wednesday, according to the report.

The move means another chance of venue for the conference tournament, which will be its fifth venue since 2000.

Traditionally centric to its Philadelphia base — three of the league's schools, Temple, Saint Joseph's and LaSalle, are located within the city — the conference moved the tournament to New Jersey, beginning in 2007 after a four-year run in Ohio. Fans of the three Philadelphia schools, as well as Fordham, George Washington and Richmond, complained that travel to first Dayton (2003-04) and then Xavier (2005-06) was too inconvenient.

Boardwalk Hall was chosen as the new site for the four-day tournament, with a contract that runs through 2012. However, attendance never took off like tournament officials had hoped.

Last year's conference championship game between Richmond and Dayton, drew only 5,600 fans.

The move allows the Atlantic 10 to have a greater imprint on the metropolitan area, something which commissioner Bernedette McGlade has been seeking. The conference already has taken one step in that direction, as it will host its annual media day in Brooklyn on Oct. 13.